The 33rd annual Heartland Film Festival, held in Indianapolis, IN, closed this weekend by naming the winners of its Audience Awards and the grand prizes for Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature.
Festivalgoers chose September 5 for the prestigious Narrative Special Presentation Audience Award – Director Tim Fehlbaum’s powerful retelling of the 1972 Olympic hostage crisis, as seen from the viewpoint of the ABC Sports broadcasting crew. Starring Peter Saarsgard, Ben Chaplin, John Magaro, and Leonie Benesch, September 5 is picking up serious Oscar steam and may become a sleeper pick for contention in multiple categories. The tragic story of members of the Israeli wrestling team being abducted by Palestinian terrorists was previously told in the 1999 Oscar-winning documentary One Day in September, and the event was used as the jumping-off point for Steven Spielberg’s 5-time Oscar-nominated 2005 film Munich. September 5‘s unique perspective has resonated with audiences at numerous film festivals now, and I think we’ll see Paramount Pictures step up with a full campaign to attract Academy voters.
In the Narrative category (for which I was honored to be a jury member), the Festival chose La Cocina, directed by Alonso Ruizpalcios and starring Rooney Mara and Paul Briones. La Cocina dynamically tells the story of a day in the life of a Hell’s Kitchen restaurant and the mix of its low-income and undocumented employees. The film is an ensemble piece with Mara and Briones being first among equals in this bracing drama about those living on the margins regarding income and legal status. You can read my review of the film here.
Porcelain War was named the winner in the Documentary Feature category. Directors Brendan Bollomo and Slava Leontyev illuminate the harrowing story of two Ukrainian artists who refuse to leave their hometown despite Russian fighter jets dropping bombs on their besieged nation.
Other festival honorees include:
The documentary Champions of the Golden Valley won the Overall Audience Choice Award.
Blink won the Documentary Special Presentation Audience Choice Award.
Actor Craig T. Nelson, who received the Pioneering Spirit: Lifetime Achievement Award (Nelson’s family farm drama Green and Gold screened in competition)
Sing Sing writer/director/producer Greg Kwedar received the Pioneering Spirit Award.
Anders Lindwall’s Green and Gold was given the Jimmy Stewart Legacy Award.
Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain received the Humor and Humanity Award.
Los Frikis (directed by Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson) and Zurawski v Texas (Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, directors) received the Richard D. Propes Awards for Narrative and Documentary Social Impact, respectively.
The Best Narrative Premiere Award went to The Paper Bag Plan (directed by Anthony Lucero), and the Best Documentary Premiere Award was given to Testament (directors Benjamin Tiede and Patrick Marsh).
Last Days of Summer (directed by Alex Rodgers) and North Putnam (directed by Joel Fendelman) received the Indiana Spotlight Awards for Narrative and Documentary.
See The Heartland Film Festival’s full press release for complete details
